Middleboro Mashpee Wampanoag Resort Casino

7/11/07 Mark Belanger reports in his CasinoFacts blog that CasinoFacts signs are been stolen off private property* in such frequency that it suggests an organized campaign. I can only attest to knowing that it is not an organized campaign by the other grassroots group, Many Voices of Middleboro and certainly not by this website.

I urge anybody reading this who knows of or is engaged in trespassing and, yes, stealing, signs from private property or who knows anybody who is doing this to make sure it stops. 

Worse, he says that members of CasinoFacts.org have been called and harassed at their homes and businesses - in some cases in the middle of the night. This is totally unacceptable and of course illegal. I support reporting this to the police.

Belanger reports that a woman had her car spat on when a man saw the "No Casino" bumper sticker. Both sides have had a few people engage in such behavior. It matters not that pro-casino people have had at two equally aggressive and rude incidents, and that they have consistently been "given the finger" by a few people when rallying at the rotary. These things are most likely being done by people neither side can control, but I join condemning such behavior no matter from which side it comes from.

If someone doesn't abide by the rules of simple courtesy by the time they're old enough to drive I doubt admonitions from us will do much good even if we tell them that it hardly adds credence to the pro or con message they are attempting to convey.

* A side note, I am pleased that as far as I can tell, CasinoFacts.org is no longer placing signs on public property. All this does is prove that one side spent more on signs than the other, and encourages the pros to try to cancel out the cons by putting their signs at the same location the same way politicians do.

Signs on private property may demonstrate who is spending money on such publicity, but they also show that people are willing to express their viewpoints for all to see.

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